I remember the one who ‘commited suicide’ under a bush with a blunt knife. That one is new to me though.
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And…BAM! The other shoe has now dropped, as expected. Proof that the federal government targeted and harassed people charged with no crime whatsoever, based on their religious beliefs and solely for political advantage. And to think - all those years, they were letting soldiers get killed while they (claim they) couldn’t manage to find bin Laden, but they found time and money for this.
So, are we supposed to be all grateful it didn’t come down to interment camps again? Er…hold up on that one. Guantanamo. Um. Infiltrating social activist movements? Uhhh…nope. Got that, too. Unreasonable search and seizure? Derp. Civil…nevermind.
God. Sure never thought I’d see the day when I actually wished the birthers had been correct.
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Because McCain and Romney have been SO outspoken against government spying and unlawful detention and drone strikes. If only Obama hadn’t been elected we’d be living in a Civil Libertarian paradise!
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Not being a USian, the bulk of my news reading is on Australian & UK sites. The bulk (although not all) of the comments and articles tend to be in support of Snowden and range from irritated to furious toward the NSA.
When I go to an American news site, it’s essentially the opposite, where the proportion of people screaming “traitor” etc is overwhelming. Interestingly it’s completely at odds with the rest of the world.
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Yeah, I’m not a huge fan of Obama at this point, but the spying complex has a life of its own, apparently only governed by itself.
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I could agree with you minus the last sentence. Imagine how much wagging the dog would take place. No one would pay any attention to spying. As it is, most aren’t paying attention.
Yipes! don’t take any disparagement of Obama on my part as support for McCain or Romney! Nearly yakked, there. This whole thing is far more broken than just him, for sure. Or even him and them. I think it was the ‘transparency’ promise that got me. And maybe, the fact that he’s in his second term, so the only way to unload him now is impeachment. (Not that I’d mind, but it would have been nice to see millions come out and fire him at the polls, ya know? )
adonai - I’m kind of thinking the gentle treatment Obama’s getting in the press here is most likely a function of their need to not get shut out by their White House and other sources.
I really hate unqualified percentages. 1% of their contacts could be 3 or 3000 contacts, but we don’t know because it isn’t explained. If one of my google contact lists has over 2000 contacts, that would be 20 extremist contacts, which I think would be more than enough, probably, to warrant further scrutiny. I suppose 1 would be enough, in the minds of some people.
But is is really so hard to say 1% (1/100)? It adds an important measure of clarity.
I know that in my own google contacts the definition of contact is ANYONE who ever sent me a message or received a message from me. It’s an extensive list, full of names/numbers that have no meaning to me whatsoever. Sheesh, I need to do some housecleaning.
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That is a scary scary world I do not want to live in.
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Don’t forget about spam scam robocalls either, especially those that leave messages on your phone. I have no clue where they originate from, they clearly aren’t legit businesses at times, and some call every day.
Holy cow! Did you just find an actual legitimate use for the NSA?
Props, man.
I was thinking the opposite. The NSA doesn’t like you, therefore you have foreign contacts. Yeah, paranoid ramblings, I know. But if they wanted to make themselves useful in this area, it would have happened, like they share info with the DEA.
And I was being snarky toward the NSA. Still - if anyone needs to be porn-stalked - who better than the spam robocaller guys? Even I wouldn’t find the whole idea quite so offensive then. Because, Public Service!
it’s scary to think about.
I think that the ghost in the NSA machine is J. Edgar Hoover’s, so it will be used…
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Maybe Keith is channelling Edgar… Scary.
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But…but. Wouldn’t that make Keith a homosexual homophobic murderous paranoid alcoholic megalomaniac?
Depends on precisely who you ask, certainly. But if even 20% of those accusations are actually true, then odds are heavily in favor of RBT happening with Keith around.
But I’m not too focused on Keith, because he’ll be gone shortly. The script calls for his replacement to be an ‘innovator’ who will bring ‘change’ with a smiling ‘yes we can’ attitude, marketed through the mainstream media in a kind of relaxed, la-la-good-times ‘told ya we were reviewing stuff’ way. Maybe not even uniformed headshots, but full-length volunteerism-in-my-acid-washed pix as an introduction. You think?
Crud. I wouldn’t be surprised to end up on that list, being a former mod on an 80k member counterculture site.
The NSA’s also stated that it doesn’t “collect” millions of US phone calls… because they define “collect” as reviewed by a live person employed by them, rather than what it usually means in normal context.
They have a history of playing exactly the sort of obscure word games that you think is unrealistic.
